Stretching a self-interacting semiflexible polymer

Abstract

We present results from three-dimensional off-lattice Monte Carlo simulations to investigate the stretching response of a semi-flexible polymer subjected to self-attractive interactions. We employ the quasi-static approximation and consider both the fixed elongation and the fixed force ensemble, which can equally well be reproduced in experiments nowadays. The force vs. elongation curves are in general non-monotonic, and the quantity and height of peaks increase with decreasing temperature, and with increasing stiffness. We finally compute the variation of unfolding force with temperature. Our results should be relevant for stretching experimental studies, and for more refined theoretical modeling, taking non-equilibrium and kinetic effects into account.